We are happy to announce that the winner of the RSDS Photo Competition for February 2023 has been chosen. Congratulations to Gina Goodmans with her photo "Hunter".
Gina wins a free stay at the RSDS village of her choice. You can view the winning photo, and all the February participants here.
If you would like a chance to win, simply register on our website and upload your photos from our competition page. Each day we choose a 'photo of the day' from the selection of entries. Anyone can register on our website and vote on photos entered into the competition. At the end of the month our Photo Pro and photography workshop leader, Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield, looks at the votes and chooses a winner from the highest scoring photos. Full terms and conditions and prize details are available here.
Congratulations again to Gina, and good luck to all those participating in the coming months!
From Paul Duxfield, our competition judge:
Well that’s a weird coincidence I found myself saying whilst perusing February’s shortlist of competition entries. And most of the entries are of very common to see things, proving that the rarity of a creature isn't automatically going to propel it to the front. And the winner this month is very good example of that.
Initially though I have to say that we’ve a couple of great fish portraits, a tightly cropped Blue Spotted Ray from Johan, a strong composition of a Coral Goby from Shannon, Jan’s Hawkfish, all examples of creatures that are easy to find but not always that easy to shoot.
A mention goes to Luisa with a great head on picture of a Whaleshark too, however in the end I’m torn between two great pictures of very familiar subject matter.
The Lionfish.
Last months winner was also a Lionfish so I’m starting to get paranoid that maybe you all think that I’m going to be swayed by what is admittedly a very pictorially beautiful crreature. Also easy to find in the Red Sea. They can be quite hard to shoot so any old picture of a Lionfish just won’t cut it. It has to be a shot with wow factor.
So lo and behold we have two that fit that bill perfectly.
Lorincz' hunting Lionfish close to the surface, with beams of sunlight piercing the bait ball of fish that our subject is clearly eyeing up is a glorious picture and no doubt took some time and patience to get.
Compositionally and technically well executed.
Gina Goodmans picture of a Lionfish was my other front runner, and despite it being a very similar shot to last month’s winner by Shannon, I have to say it has raised the bar, its got surface suggestion, beams of sunlight, a classically posed Lionfish, a real worthy winner any month let alone a couple of months where we’ve had a whole Pride of Lionfish to contend with.
So in the end, despite all this, the vote in my head goes to Gina.
Brilliant picture, and particularly with such fierce (too many puns!!) competition.
Duxy has been running escorted photo workshops in Marsa Shagra for the last three years. These workshops are designed for camera users of all experience levels, with any type of underwater camera. Duxy is on hand to share tips and information, troubleshoot individual photography issues, escort early morning and late afternoon dives, and give talks on specific subjects. The Red Sea Photo Camp with Duxy and Alphamarine Photography will be held in Shagra from June 13-20 2023 - full information.
